This article has now been superseded by the latest Lollipop 6.0 Android Icon Size Guide. Please click on the image below to view the latest information.

As technology has evolved, phone & tablet manufacturers have created screens with ever increasing resolutions and pixel density. An increase in pixel density or dots per inch (dpi), means more image information can be displayed within the same physical screen space. This means clearer, sharper text and images are possible as pixel density increases. For icon designers it also means we can create ever more beautiful icons.

To allow for increasing resolution Android has created an icon size rule-set that works on a scaling factor to fit common screen densities. This means we can design icons to look their best on whatever screen they are displayed on by creating a version for each resolution. Using Android’s scaling factor makes it simple to work out what we need for any screen asset and also makes it simple for Android to add another scale for the next jump in screen resolutions.

What size is the Google Play Store icon?

Quick answer: 512 pixels PNG format

Your Android Google play Store icon needs to be 512×512 pixels, PNG format. This icon was created for Luvango’s dating App.

What size are Android App Launcher icons?

Quick answer: 48, 72, 96, 144, & 192 pixels PNG format

All Android 5.1 icons are required in 5 sizes to support the different display densities available: 160, 240, 320, 480 & 640 dpi (dots per inch). Any displays with lower screen densities (LDPI) have their icons generated automatically from the Baseline (MDPI) icon by Android.

MDPI – x1 – 48×48 pixels for 160 dpi (Baseline)

HDPI – x1.5 – 72×72 pixels for 240 dpi

XHDPI – x2 – 96×96 pixels for 320 dpi

XXHDPI – x3 – 144×144 pixels for 480 dpi

XXXHDPI – x4 – 192×192 pixels for 640 dpi

Android 5.1 app launcher icons sizes

What sizes are Android interface icons?

The following table shows the icon sizes needed for all Android icon types, for all screen densities.

MDPI

HDPI

XHDPI

XXHDPI

XXXHDPI

Scale

1 x

1.5 x

2 x

3 x

4 x

DPI

160 dpi

240 dpi

320 dpi

480 dpi

640 dpi

Launcher

48 px

72 px

96 px

144 px

192 px

Action bar

32 px

48 px

64 px

96 px

128 px

Small / Contextual

16 px

24 px

32 px

48 px

64 px

Notification

24 px

36 px

48 px

72 px

96 px

Need Android icons?

Owner and creative director at Creative Freedom Ltd. Unbelievably cool icon design expert, husband, and father of two awesome girls. A proper decent chappy and thoroughly fab to work with. Ok, so I wrote my own bio…

Thanks for this great article. I just have one question.
If I design 512×512 px round corner icon with radius 15 px and resolution 300px for android in photoshop. What if I want to scale down the icon to 192×192 or 144×144.

The radius will scale down proportionally, as the icon gets smaller so will the radius.

You can scale down the icon from 512 pixels but I wouldn’t recommend it. When you scale down the lines you drew for the large size will start to blur and you will lose the crispness of the icon. This also happens on your corner radius.

I always redraw the icon for each size. Sometimes this only means a little editing but it makes a big difference to the clarity and crispness of your icon. Take a look at this article that compares automated scaling using software vs doing it manually.